A woman and her boyfriend who strangled her lover

A woman and her boyfriend who strangled her lover
and torched his corpse after a jealous love triangle ended in bloodshed face life behind bars today.

(Mon)

Tahir Butt, 49, was beaten up, throttled with a phone cable, and driven to a remote country lane by his killers.

His killers poured petrol over his four-wheel drive and set it on fire in a desperate bid to destroy the evidence.

They then phoned Mr Butt’s wife and pretended the murder was a revenge attack over an unpaid drugs debt in a bid to send police on ‘a wild goose chase.

‘

But an Old Bailey jury heard how restaurant boss Mr Butt was killed by his lover’s new boyfriend Manoj Mistry and one of his brothers.

They attacked the father-of-two in March 1999 after he spoke to his married lover Aruna Joshi, 42, on the phone.

Joshi and motor mechanic Mistry, 36, both denied murder.

But after a two week trial the pair showed no emotion today as they were convicted of murder.

Mistry was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

This was a retrial after a jury failed to reach verdicts last November.

Mistry’s unemployed brother Millan, 31, was convicted of murder and perverting the course of justice at the previous trial.

His other brother, 28-year-old postman Kiran, was cleared of murder but convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Rebecca Poulet, QC, prosecuting said Joshi had been having an affair with former minicab driver Mr Butt since the late 1980s.

Her husband had been suffering from mental and physical difficulties, and their marriage was on the rocks.

Joshi also had a fling with a man named Amir Hassam, and both men were aware of her relationship with the other.

A year before Mr Butt died, Joshi finished with Mr Hassam, and then started seeing Manoj Mistry.

This time, she made sure that Mr Butt did not find out about her second affair, the jury was told.

Miss Poulet said Mr Butt, who was set to open a new restaurant in East Lane, Wembley, was killed on the night of March 17, 1999.

He had called in at his eaterie, the Korai Queen in the Wembley triangle, at around 8.

30pm and chatted to staff before making a call to Joshi.

He drove to a nearby newsagents for mints, but then vanished, the jury was told.

Shortly after leaving the shop Mr Butt was attacked and killed.

His body was bundled into the passenger seat of his car and driven to Hilfield Lane in Bushey, Herts, where it was torched.

When firemen put out the blaze, they discovered Mr Butt’s charred remains.

His ankles and wrists were bound together with cable ties and a length of orange rope.

A pathologist later found a partially-burned ligature – possibly a phone cable – round Mr Butt’s neck.

There was also bruising to the his face, stomach, and hip.

The court heard that 90 minutes after the fire was started, Mr Butt’s wife received a phone call at the family’s home in Maple Avenue, south Harrow.

It is alleged the caller, speaking in Hindi, told her: ‘Rafia, we know Tahir, your husband.

He had pnds stlg 50,000 of drugs money.

‘He didn’t give it back.

We have burned him alive and now, Rafia, your daughter and son and your house will be next.

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The caller then hung up, but jurors heard the Mistry brothers were trying to put police off the scent.

Miss Poulet said: ‘They laid a false trail of phone calls and letters designed to lead police on a wild goose chase and to lead them away from the truth.

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In a police statement Joshi claimed the victim appeared haunted in the four months before his death.

She said: ‘It seemed to me he had some inner worry, some inner fear.

‘Several times I used to ask him but he would not reply.

He would not laugh.

He would not talk as before.

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She said she spoke to him on the phone on the night before he died and Mr Butt told her he was too busy at his restaurant to come and see her.

The following day a friend gave her the shocking news that Mr Butt was dead.

Joshi told police she had met her husband only once before their arranged marriage.

They had two children but she came to realise he was ‘mentally abnormal and under-developed.

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Joshi said she met Mr Butt when he ran her home from Sainsburys in his mini cab and she invited him in for a cup of tea.

‘Gradually the relationship between us grew and became a sexual relationship,’ she said.

‘I started to love him very much.

He gave me his love in return.

‘

She recalled they had sex every two or three weeks.

Problems arose when Mr Butt went into partnership with his wife’s two brothers who threw him out of the deal when they found out he was seeing Joshi.

Joshi said the brothers and Mr Butt’s wife turned up at her house and told her: ‘You must not let him come here.

If he comes here we will kill him.

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She added she had been threatened by the family several times over the last two years.

Mr Butt started his own restaurant but continued to visit Joshi.

She claimed the last time she saw him alive was when he called at her home on March 15 and brought her some supper from the restaurant.

Manoj Mistry, of Eton Avenue, Wembley, and Joshi, of Dagmar Avenue, Wembley, both denied murder on March 17, 1999.

Mistry also denied perverting the course of justice between March 16 and July 31, 1999, by assisting in the disposal of the body and communicating by phone and letter to mislead as to the true nature of Mr Butt.

All four defendants are due to be sentenced on a date to be fixed.

ends

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